Q: advice that makes sense to a "newbie." Most of what I have read on the internet seems to say that I'm going to have trouble with drivers. What say you?
A: MOST new printers are compatible with Vista, When Vista first came on the scene there were loads of drivers that were not available, there are still some issues with 64 bit drivers for peripherals but the specs of anything you wish to buy will telll you if there is a problem with drivers with certain OS's. If you are not sure just go to the manufacturers website and look for support or downloads, find the printer you are thinking of buying and check that the drivers for your flavour of Vista is available. As I said, 99% of printers are Vista compatible... :0)